Vancouver’s False Creek inlet is full of life. On any given day, you’ll see kayakers, yachts, motorboats, and aqua busses. It’s a bustling water world! I mean, no wonder! It’s gorgeous! You’re perfectly nestled between the towering Downtown architecture and quaint West End neighbourhoods.
I don’t know about you, but when I think of False Creek and Olympic Village, I get a yuppy vibe with expensive coffee shops, yoga studios and massive breweries. But, like most places in Vancouver, the area is rich with history and culture, far before the white man’s footprint.
“Archeological evidence and oral traditions record the First Nations use of the False Creek area for over 3000 years (Cheryl Chan, “Expo 86: When Vancouver Wooed the World-30 Photos, 30 Years Later,” Vancouver Sun, May 14, 2016, http://vancouversun.com/local-news/expo-86-when-vancouver)
Before colonization, the inlet was home to the Coast Salish peoples. The Indigenous peoples treated the land and sea with eternal respect, but with their displacement and assimilation, False Creek was westernized. At first, as a polluting industrial site, and following Expo 86, a tourist hub.
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As of more recently, the False Creek community has taken initiatives to reflect the history and culture of the Coast Salish peoples.
Concord Pacific has launched Canoe Cultures, a canoe carving and building program at the downtown Concord Community Park. The program works with Indigenous youth to educate and build strong leaders in their communities.
The hands-on work includes building and restoring canoes and later racing them in the inlet. Canoe racing was banned years ago by settlers. Cultural bans like this were used to assimilate the Indigenous people and stop them from passing down their cultural traditions.
Concord Pacific Canoe Cultures is led by Lead Carver Mike Billy Sr., a seventh-generation Squamish Nation canoe carver. The program provides the space and resources for Indigenous youth to learn and work with their elders and peers.
The False Creek area is a community for Indigenous peoples. It’s time to restore the culture and history that colonizers worked to suppress.